Looking Up Photography Tips

Photography has become a lot easier in this digital age. There are no worries about spending too much money on film and then having to wait to see if the photos you took are any good. In fact it has become so easy to shoot that we forget that we can edit our shots so that merely good photos will turn into great photos.

When we take photos at eye level we miss a lot of opportunities to create unusual and dramatic images.

In this series I’ll show you some photos that illustrate how the subject can be enhanced and improved by Looking Up. Take a lot of shots. Remember, you’ll never run out of film and it’s real easy to delete what may not be worth saving. Here are some photographs that I hope will inspire you to think Up in addition to taking the conventional pose.

First picture is what I would call a typical shot of the court-house in the town where I live. It’s a conventional photo and taken straight-on. I think it’s a good shot because it was taken in one of the Golden Hours, just after the sun came up. This resulted in such strong colors.

Second photo was taken at the same time, but I saw the early-morning moon and walked around so I could position it close to the clock. I found this illustrated good results from taking some time and looking up.

The following photos show more results from Looking Up.

Third picture is of the courtyard of the British Museum in London. Light streams in from the patterned ceiling and you get an idea of its size when you notice the three persons standing there.

Forth photo is of a bridge near my home town. A straight-on shot would have been good, but what a dramatic result comes from walking around the bridge, getting down and shooting up. Here’s a piece of advice – Wear your old clothes and sturdy shoes when you take pictures like this.

You’re looking at the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland in the fifth picture. The building was a gift to Poland from Russia and is considered a monstrosity by most Poles. By looking up, I took this view of the top of the palace through the roof of a near-by shopping center.

By looking up you may want to zoom in and photograph the decorations on the tops of buildings. I took this sixth photo on the grounds of Queluz Palace in Lisbon, Portugal.

Warsaw is proud of its Old Town, whose buildings were re-built after World War II. By looking up I was able to capture this dramatic pose of the skyline of Old Town in this last photograph.